Don Ceniza

Why I chose Johnson

A Johnson MBA will be the catalyst to take me to the next level, to open more doors, and to teach me to be an effective business leader. Where else would I get an MBA but at Cornell which offers the best instruction, an intensive collaborative team environment, and a flexible schedule for executives?

May 25 2017

Thanks for that one last piece of swag

Two years ago around this time, I was still quite excited that I got accepted to be a part of the Cornell Executive MBA Americas program as part of the class of 2017. I received my acceptance notification months before, and classes were about to start in a little more than a month. I was getting nervous about the intensity of the classes and how to balance work and study schedules. I remember asking myself: Will I be able to survive this?

For the next 17 months, my Atlanta boardroom team bravely made a couple of trips to Ithaca, New York and Kingston, Canada, a trip to Hong Kong for our global business project, had plenty of boardroom meetings to conquer projects, and scheduled countless conference calls to ensure we were not falling behind on deliverables. The classes were intense, but rewarding, and the projects challenging, but full of lessons we can apply to our careers.

Where learning happens

As we approach the end, there are a number of folks I would like to send my gratitude to for all that they have done in my journey through business school.

I would like to thank the Executive MBA Admissions team for accepting me to the program. I know you have plenty of candidates to choose from every year, so I thank you for giving me a chance to be part of this elite program.

To the folks in the Financial Aid office, thank you. I had plenty of questions throughout the year and you all were always very helpful and patient—no question went unanswered.

I don’t remember using the library resources in my undergrad years as much as I have in this program, so to the folks in the Management Library, I thank you. No matter how esoteric a topic I was researching for a project, you had a number of resources for me to look at. I am impressed.

Also, thank you to the faculty of the Executive MBA Americas program. At the very least, you taught me how to apply every minute of free time I had to catching up on case studies and projects, and studying for tests. Thank you for being with us on weekends when you could have spent it with your families. We would not have earned this degree without your dedication to us.

Of course, great thanks to my cohort in the Executive MBA Americas program. You all made it a fun journey, and I hope our little groups in WhatsApp and Facebook continue to live on forever so we can easily keep in touch. We may all live in different cities and countries, but everyone has been very welcoming whenever members of our cohort visit each other’s locations. I hope that will continue.

Last but not least, to my family and friends who may have felt I have ignored some of them for nearly two years, thank you. Thank you for your support and for always checking in on me. You got me through the tough times.

This week, we are back in Ithaca again, hopefully not for the last time—but it will be our last time there as MBA students. Our final assignment is to get to Bartels Hall on time, pick up our regalia, take pictures, and get that one last piece of swag: our degree. My first blog post, It’s Not Official Until It’s Swag Official, was about getting swag as we started the MBA program, and now it’s fitting that my last blog post as a student is about finally getting the real swag we came here for—that degree with the letters MBA.